Learning Along the Way
by forgot10
Summary: what if harry had a twin? this is going to be updated very soon, i had a few problems..i left the file in michigan.


What if Harry had a twin sister? Her story, from day one. Includes OotP  
  
Chapter one: backstory  
  
This whole confusing mess started on august 10, 1999. That's the day I received my first owl. I was just a normal, if somewhat geeky and accident- prone, 11 yr. old. Except for the weird scar on my shoulder. And that I was raised by my moms best friend. I was never really told what happened to my parents, Nina always said that they had been in an accident, which I never thought was true.  
We were sitting at the table that morning. Nina made pancakes, and they ended up being the weird shape kind. Not that I minded, weird shapes were good. We were arguing over me taking a vitamin when a rather old looking owl flew into the window. The shut window. I jumped, vitamin forgotten by both of us, as the thing crashed and landed in the wisteria outside the window. It seemed to have a letter or something attached to its leg, which I regarded as animal cruelty. Nina opened the window and picked the bird out of the plant, it hooting quietly. "Aunt Nina, that's an owl that just flew at our kitchen window." I stated, slightly shaken by the last minute of action. "I know that." Nina answered. "A bird. What looks to be a barn owl. With a letter attached to its foot. That you're now bringing into the kitchen. Doesn't anything look a bit odd, let's say, to you?" "There's a lot we need to talk about." "Gee, really?" "Stop being Ms. Obnoxious and open this, it's addressed to you anyway."  
Nina handed me the letter. It was parchment, with scrawling green ink on it that actually was addressed to me. Exactly to me, in fact. Down to the fact that I was in the kitchen. Creepy. I opened it, not surprised to find more of the green ink. It read: Dear Ms. Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to attend Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry.  
Best regards,  
Albus Dumbledore,  
Headmaster of Hogwarts school of  
witchcraft and wizardry  
  
I read the letter and looked up, disbelieving. "Now that, Nina, was a good one. Everyone knows that witches and wizards are just make-believe. What's next, a reply letter from Santa? A receipt from the tooth fairy? An apology from the bogeyman?" I asked, entirely annoyed. Even more so when Nina didn't respond the way I wanted. "This is one of the things I need to talk to you about. This is no joke; you really are in Hogwarts. You're a witch. So am I. I haven't been entirely honest with you about a few things. These things really do exist, don't look at me like I'm crazy. I went to Hogwarts too. So did your parents." "My parents?" "Yes, they were actually quite powerful."  
I looked up at Nina in disbelief. I'm a witch? It runs in the family? She's one too? What next, I have an estranged family? So many questions were spinning around in my head, too many for me. I put the letter down, letting everything sink in. "There's more, sweetie. Your parents weren't in a car crash." " I knew that, I always did. It sounded wrong, didn't fit in with the picture I had in my head." "About 10 yrs. ago, a dark wizard came to power, he was really, really cruel. His name was lord -" "Voldemort."  
Now it was Nina's turn to stare dumbfounded. "How did you know that? You were too young, and you've never met anyone, not even Harry!" "Harry?" "But how did you know about volde." Nina stumbled a bit over the name, as if it hurt to say it. "The names been in my head for most of my life. Weird, tall guy, black robe, red slits for eyes." "That's enough, he's in my nightmares too. I should tell you who Harry is. When your parents were killed-" "Voldemort killed them and blew the cottage apart. It's been a dream of mine for a few years." "Dumbledore and Sirius thought that you should stay with me, and that your brother should stay with your mothers sister's family." "My brother? I have a brother? Why didn't you tell me before?" "Twin brother, actually. I thought you were too young, and that you would want to meet him. It wasn't possible, he's in London and Petunia hates him. I'm so sorry, sweetheart." "Why were we separated in the first place?" "It was too dangerous, you see, volde-, well, he went to kill your parents, and he would have killed the both of you, too. But the curse that he hit Harry with backfired on him, and he was killed instead. We felt that his followers would want to exact revenge on you two, so we split the two of you up to protect you. " "That makes sense, in a weird sort of way." "He's going to be at Hogwarts too. We're leaving for London in two days." "So I'm going to a hoity-toity British school for magick, and I'm going to meet my brother there. Anything else too shocking for me to fully comprehend?" "It's not hoity-toity, I went there, remember? Its one of the best wizarding schools in the world, and I think your going to have fun there." "Ok, fine, whatever." I picked up my juice again.  
  
Two days later I arrived in London, and we went off to get my school supplies. A long list had been provided with my acceptance letter, and I wondered exactly where we were supposed to get a cauldron, robes, and the rest of the stuff on the list. Definitely not on Steinway. "Um, Nina, where are we supposed to get all this stuff, anyway?" "Diagon alley, of course." "Bless you." "That's not funny, there are a lot of words that don't sound English to you here. Just wait until you have charms, you wont believe what you're saying actually exists." "And where is this Diagon alley?" "Right here." " No, that's a pub we're standing in front of." "You're absolutely correct. Now follow me and don't mention Harry at all, he's a bit on the well-known side in this part of the world."  
We walked right through the pub, which was filled with rather odd- looking people. A witch at the back table looked up when we walked in, and for a moment looked at Nina strangely before realizing who she was. She squealed and got up, running to Nina and hugging her. -Nina, its so great to see you again, what has it been, 11 years or so? -Yeah, about that long.  
The witch seemed to notice me for the first time, her eyes glancing me over as if she already knew me. Her voice went quiet, and she looked back up at Nina. -Is this the girl? -Yes, she's starting in Hogwarts this year. We were just on our way to pick up her school supplies. Canal St. isn't as well stocked as Diagon Alley. So, what are you doing here? The last owl we sent, you were in Bulgaria, weren't you? -I was relocated; I just came back yesterday. I'm staying with a friend until I can find my own place. -Well, we need to go, Ollivanders doesn't stay open for long. See you around.  
We walked into diagon alley, and started shopping. We were almost done when we walked into Ollivanders. An old man was helping a boy find a wand. The boy twirled the wand about and the light on the desk exploded. The old man shuffled off to pick out another wand. "Apparently that's not the one, huh? "I stated. "Apparently."  
The boy turned around, and I suddenly realized who it was. He had my eyes, my hair color, and the same facial expressions. "Um, Nina, could you come over here?" I called back. Nina came around the shelf of wands and looked at the both of us. She realized who he was immediately. "Hi Harry. I'm Nina; I was your mom's best friend in school. Did Hagrid bring you here?" "Yeah, he's over in the pet shop. Said he'd come over in about 20 minutes, basically now. That's him, he just walked through the door." We turned around and saw a man walk through the door, holding a small box on a pile of books. "Hello Hagrid. How are things at Hogwarts?" Nina asked. "Fine, fine. Wait, why are you 'ere, I thought you 'ad Jamie!" "I do. Jamie, I'd like you to meet Hagrid, he's the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. Hagrid, meet Jamie." Nina looked down at me, as if urging me to say something. "Hi." I stated meekly. " 'ey there. You know who 'arry is, right?" Hagrid turned to Nina, "I didn't know 'ow to tell 'I'm, so I thought it best to leave it up to you or Dumbledore." "That's fine, I can tell him." Nina turned to look down at us. "Do you want to go get ice cream or something?"  
Harry surprisingly took it better than I did. No screaming, or any fuss at all, to be exact. He seemed pretty happy about it, I guess he'd always wanted to have a sibling. We went off to Hogwarts, made friends, etc. We got into a bit of trouble every now and then, but that's what we were supposed to do. Hermione got us out of quite a few of our problems, Ron got us into them. But somehow, starting that June, I felt like a tag- along. I couldn't help it, it's hard being the twin sister of the popular one.  
Well, anyway, I got into a dark place that summer. I didn't let anyone see, not even Nina or my best friend. She couldn't know anyway, she's a muggle. I went back to school faking it. As usual, no one noticed.  
  
Ginny was having problems of her own, leading to the near demise or quite a few things. I knew what she was going through, and I started to wonder. What if I didn't come back next year? What if I just disappeared from the wizarding world, and was a normal- ok, as close to normal as I could be- muggle? I could be a relatively normal teenager. I wouldn't have to lie to my friends about my whereabouts during the school year. The idea struck me as genius, but I was still afraid of the consequences. I've always been a don't-put-your-foot-out-of-line girl, so the thought of defying anyone, even myself, scared me. Quite a bit, actually. Third year was interesting. Hogsmeade, for one. Getting out of Hogwarts during the school year was great. We met Sirius, who understood me, for a really strange reason. I started to be a bit happy for once. I stopped caring about not being noticed, and just decided to have fun. and pass potions. Somehow I always managed to explode something in that class. And I think Snape had more disdain for me than he did for Harry and Neville combined. Draco always managed to tease me for that, among other things. He seemed relentless to me and Hermione, especially 'Mione. He even called us mudbloods, which he received a bloody nose for.( the one good thing about growing up in New York is that you learn to defend yourself at an early age.) he never said that to me again. And I seemed to get more respect after that.  
  
That summer was unremarkable. I spent a lot of time just listening to my CDs. Linkin park became a favorite. That September, I went back a bit more ok with myself. That December, my world fell apart again. It started with the Yule ball. I really wanted to go with someone (a certain Ron Weasley that will remain unnamed), and as usual, I was too afraid to ask. So I waited for Ron to ask me to the dance. And I waited. Slowly everyone was paired up. Even Hermione had a date. Viktor krum, I might add too( that guy was sorta neat, I have to admit). And then Ron got himself a date. It's funny, how a little bit of guilt, a touch of shame, pinch of anger, and a spoonful of embarrassment can end up magically turned into a whole vat of depression and heartache. I didn't go to the dance. I stayed in my room and actually helped 'Mione get ready. I've never seen hair need that much gel to stay in place and not frizz out(actually I have, it's sitting on my head.). I watched the triwizard tournament with a bit of jealousy, why did Harry always get himself into these things? It must've been some sort of luck thing. He got the good end of the bargain. And I cried when Cedric died. He was a good friend of mine; we usually studied together. His death brought it all down for me, I went into a whole new depth of despair that I hoped I would never reach. The type where your whole heart aches, it feels like it's going to break, like your chest is going to split open. I felt like I couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything. I kept getting nightmares, some of them about Cedric dying. He was, I don't know how to put it, zapped with a jet of green light. I couldn't take it after the seventh time I woke up screaming( neither could anyone else in the room, they thought I had gone schizo), and asked harry how Cedric had died, telling him my dream first. I was entirely accurate. It's weird, that must be my talent. Seeing things in my dreams. I also described the rest of what I saw, Voldemort becoming corporeal, the whole shebang. He was thunderstruck. As was professor dumbledore, when I went down to his office and told him. he immediately had me taking olligancy classes from Snape and Nina (over the summer), who seemed just as keen as I was on the idea. They brought back memories from when I was a child. Things I'd rather not remember. That's why I blocked those years out. I had no memory of the years between 5 and 10, it was too painful for me and I made myself forget. Even worse, it was in a class with Snape that I remembered, sending me straight to the floor and cursing him. (a/n: I think the person doing the curse can see into the other's memory.) it seemed he didn't like looking into those years either, I got the rest of the lesson off. But after that I learned how to clear my mind, and I started to improve dramatically. The dreams stopped, and even my mood lifted a bit. Not that much, but I wasn't incredibly suicidal every day, either. I stayed with my friends in NY over the summer; we started our now annual tradition of a crazy road trip each summer.  
  
When fifth year started, I felt like a new person. I had spent the entire summer tripping around the world, blissfully unaware of the problems harry was having. I had, yet again, been left out of the loop. It even worked out that way anyway, because I had been with my muggle friends all summer long. Ok, I did go to Bulgaria with harry and Sirius, but that was in the beginning of the summer. Hogwarts had just let out.  
My first shock was when harry, Hermione, and Ron, along with the Weasley family, had come to the station with an entourage. (A/n: taken straight out of ootp.) Fred filled me in on all the details on the train, which only surprised me more. Why wasn't I included in this? The entire Weasley family had been brought to the headquarters, and chopped liver over here didn't even get an owl telling me to be careful? What kind of mockery are these people playing at? Not surprisingly, I was called straight up to Dumbledore's office the moment we were all in the great hall.  
  
"Ms. potter? A word with you?" professor McGonagall said the minute I sat down. I followed her out of the hall, where we set out for Dumbledore's office. "You have been filled in, correct?" Prof. macgonnagall asked. "Yes, Fred told me everything he knew." "You didn't ask your brother?" "No, I was a bit annoyed with him at the time." "As I thought you would be." "Why wasn't I informed immediately? Even if harry had sent me a letter, I wouldn't have been this upset." "You were with muggles, to owl you would have caused a bit of a scene." "Harry and Hermione can send letters via muggle-post. They've done so before." " I really can't answer all of your questions, ms. potter." We had reached Dumbledore's office by then, and Prof. McGonagall said the password, opening the door. I went up the stairs and entered the office that I had never been in before. The whole thing was like a gigantic library, and little gadgets and gizmos floated and hummed and smoked on their own, without any seen power source. "Wicked." "Aren't they? The blue one is my favourite." professor dumbledore said. " I wanted to discuss the happenings of the summer with you, ms potter. I'm sure you had a lovely time?" "It would have been better if I had received any correspondence with my friends and family." "About that..." "Please don't say that it was a good idea at the time." "I now know it wasn't, and I am deeply sorry, Jamie." "Why wasn't I told? I would have come, I could have dropped everything and stayed with everyone." "Which is exactly what I didn't want to happen. You know that voldemort knows about you, that he has tried to control your mind before. I thought it might be a bit too much for you, and that you might be used by him again. And, I wanted to make sure he wasn't keeping an eye on you. I assure you, you were being guarded by order of the phoenix members at all times. There was never a time when anything could have happened to you. " "Believe him, Jamie." a voice, said from behind me. I turned around and saw my best friend, Kelly. "What the hell are you doing here? You're a muggle! I thought that-" I managed to stammer. ""No I'm not. I got to the school in America. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't know you were a witch too." "So how are you connected to the order?" Prof. Dumbledore cut in just then." I've always known that ms. beutler was your friend, and I've instructed her to keep an eye on you over the summer." "So that's how you did it. I thought you had, like, spies or something. Did you have spies or something?" "That isn't really important right now, ms. potter." "I guess that's a yes, then." " You've always been quick on the uptake." I turned back to Kelly, still on the topic. "Aren't you a bit glad to see me?" Kelly asked, looking at me mock angry. "Of course I am! Kelly, I would never be angry with you, you're my best friend. Used to be my best muggle friend, but now it's even better because I don't have to lie to you anymore." "Cool. So you'll be really happy that I'm transferring here, right?" " That's amazing! But why? You have your whole life in America." "It's become a bit dangerous to have children that are aware of voldemort's return and involved in the action against him to be far spread." Prof. dumbledore stated. " So, basically, he knows about Kelly. It wasn't from me, was it?" " Oh no, Jamie, voldemort has more ways to learn information than your mind. I believe that he has stopped playing with your thoughts entirely." " Yeah, I haven't been having any weird dreams lately. I mean, weird involving voldemort related stuff." " I know, ms. potter. Now we must get back down to the great hall, ms. butler has to be sorted." "Yeah, I need to talk to everyone."  
We left for the great hall after that. I was still a bit on the angry side with everyone, but I didn't bother to say anything to Dumbledore. We walked in separate ways; I took the main entrance while Kelly went with Dumbledore to be sorted. The first years filed in, all nervous about which house they would belong to within an hour. That one hour could change their lives forever. I sat down with Ron, harry, and Hermione, eager to forget about everything, but still angered by it all. " Hey guys." -Hey, they replied. All except harry. "So, how was your summer? I really wanted to talk to you, but I didn't know where to mail the letters to." Hermione said apologetically. "I'm really sorry that we were so secretive about all that." "It's okay. I know you wanted to tell me something, I felt weird all last week. Last Monday, which was probably when you found out. " "How did you know that?" "Just a feeling. My friend Kelly is being transferred to Hogwarts, she's being sorted soon."  
Sure enough, professor dumbledore stood up after "Woodmere, henry" was sorted into Hufflepuff. "I have my yearly announcements to make. As you all know, the forbidden forest remains forbidden. Mr. filch would like me to request that you not do any magic in the halls between classes. We also have two students that have been transferred to our school this year. Please welcome Kelly beutler and Christopher Vickers." that surprised me. Chris? A wizard? With a guitar or a mike, yeah, but real magic? That sounded impossible. And yet, here he was ready to be sorted by that ruffled old hat. Let's see, I've known the guy for most of my life. He's not a genius; he wouldn't be put in Ravenclaw. He never seems to be ambitious about anything but music, so he isn't a Slytherin. He's a sweetheart, but I have no clue if he's brave. He loves rollercoasters and horror movies, and he doesn't seem to have any fears or qualms. That makes him brave or foolhardy. I hoped that he was brave, as dumbledore continued. " They will both be sorted accordingly." professor McGonagall called out Kelly's name. Kelly looked at me and smiled, walked towards the small stool and sat down. McGonagall. placed the tattered hat on her head, and the hall waited in silence.  
  
Narrative pov  
  
The hat started to talk to Kelly, walking through her mind. "Let's see what we have here. Plenty of kindness, compassion. You're wise beyond your years, but not that knowledgeable. Full of ambition, but- oh, you have been through a lot, haven't you? Oh yes, now I see it all. Quite a few little problems. But you've survived them, so I place you in -- GRYFFINDOR!"  
Kelly got up and took the hat off as the name was called out, relieved that she was in the same house as Jamie. "Vickers, Christopher" professor McGonagall called out. Chris walked up to the hat, placed it on his head and sat down.  
"Oh, we're not into music, are we? Unfortunately, there is no choir in Hogwarts. Well, lets see what else we can find n that little mind of yours. You're a kind boy, polite to your elders, always willing to help. Again, you're life smart but book slow. Quite an ambitious fellow, aren't you? Well, how would you like to be in Slytherin? No, no, that is not your fate. What about courage? Are you the braveheart or the coward? You would stand up for what you believe in, that's a bit on the brave side. You fight for the people you care about. Oh, now I see. You know about Voldemort. And you were willing to come here to help, when others rejected the idea." the hat mused, speaking into Chris' mind. "Just put me in Gryffindor already." Chris thought. "Oh, anxious, are we?" "No, I'm entirely comfortable with sitting up here in front of the entire school, wearing an old hat that's talking to me, and basically decides my fate." "You definitely know Jamie." "I thought you could read my mind." "Fine, Gryffindor it is." the hat shouted out Gryffindor and Chris took it off, walking towards Kelly. "Same house again." Kelly stated. "So where do we go now?" Chris asked. "Over here, guys!" Jamie shouted.  
  
Jamie's pov  
  
I called out to those two, getting up to greet them. Ok, I ran right at Chris and bear hugged him, or as much of a hug I could give, the guy's too tall. " I never thought that you'd be a wizard." "Yeah, I never thought you we're a witch. Or so damn short still. Did you shrink?" "No, you grew. Our tables over there. " We started walking towards our seats. "Everybody, this is Kelly and Chris, be nice to them, you know it's a bit rough starting here." I said, looking straight at Fred, George, and Jordan as I did so. "Aww, Jamie, you know we'd never even think of messing with your friends." George said. "Yeah, sure. You guys don't remember the fireworks, do you." I turned to Kelly and Chris. "Guys, these numbskulls are Fred and George Weasley, and Jordan. They're in your grade, Chris. And I trust them to show you around your classes. Down there are Katie, Angelina, and Lauren. And these guys are Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Seamus, and my brother, Harry. Yeah, that Harry." I added after seeing Kelly's face. "What, you didn't realize it with the last name? I thought you were quicker than that. Anyway, they're all in my grade, except Ginny, she's a fourth year. Seamus, scootch over a bit. Guys sit down." Kelly and Chris obediently sat down (I can be a bit of a dictator). "So where did you guys all meet?" Hermione asked. "You all seem to be really close." "Well, me and Chris met when I was in kindergarten, he was in first grade. His mom led my Girl Scout troop, too, so we hung out on trips and stuff. Jamie and me met when in a music group over the summer when I was 10. Chris joined a year later, -" Kelly started "But I didn't pay attention to those two. I was twelve; ya know how it is at that age. Girls still had cooties, especially those two." Chris finished. "Boys still have cooties. I guess it's harder for them to shake them off." Kelly returned. "The cootie vaccine doesn't work as well on them as it does on us." I joined in, earning a chuckle from Hermione and a laugh from Kelly. "I resent that statement, " said Ron meekly, his face as red as his hair. "Ron, you aren't even fooling yourself." I joked. "Why are we still arguing about cooties. I'm 14 and I don't think like that anymore, I'm the youngest of this bunch." Ginny said, being the voice of reason. "Very true." said harry, finally joining in on the fun. He seemed a bit glum, staring into his pumpkin juice like he was ashamed of something. I suddenly realized that he was; he was sorry about everything. "Hey harry, can I talk to you for a minute?" I said. We got up and walked out to the front of the school, sitting on the front steps like we always did. "What's wrong?" he said as soon as we sat down. "Being the numbskull I am, I just realized that you really are sorry about all that crap. I'm sorry about how I've been acting towards you. " "You had every reason to be pissed off with me. It was partially my fault; I could have mailed you. Even Sirius wanted to bring you over, he thought that something would happen to you. He even yelled at Mrs. Weasley about it. Fred lent me an extendable ear to listen in. he said something about how 'there's a lot more he can do to Jamie than he can to harry. All you care about is harry, just because of that prophecy. You and I both know that it doesn't make him more important to voldemort.' I had no clue what he meant by prophecy, or that he could do more to you. Do you know what he meant?" "Yeah, I do. You know I still have memories about what happened, they're pretty clear. Mom was holding you, and I was in the crib. But she was just holding you, her other hand was on her wand, not on the crib. You're the only one protected. I'm basically a free-for-all. He can't hurt you, but he can kill me without the slightest hesitation." "So you mean that I'm the only one mum protected? The whole love thing?" "Yup." "Who told you that?" "I read it. And asked dumbledore about it. He didn't want to tell me, but he said that yeah, I wasn't protected." "Wow. So how was your summer? What did you do?" I went on a road trip with Kelly and her family. Entirely muggle-acting, they really knew how to act. I didn't even realize it. We went from New York to Philly, to D.C., to Orlando, to Savannah, back up to NYC for a day, then we went up to Ontario, and we finished up by camping out for a bit in a state park by Buffalo. What did you do?" " The same thing I always do. Play stay away from uncle Vernon." " I wonder how he'd react if he knew I was alive. " "He'd probably send me to live with you." "That would be a win-win." "You wanna go back in now?" "Yeah, it's getting really late." we got up and walked back in. "by the way, harry, what the hell is an extendable ear?" 


End file.
